No one who knows Ralph Kay Forsyth of Kingston, New York, ails to
recognize in him the combination of two faculties which rarely appear
together; namely, imagination and practical ability. Mr. Forsyth is a
man of unusually varied abilities, and owes his position in the world to
success in several widely different fields. He is an accomplished
musician, although not using his talent professionally; his inventive
genius has made notable contributions to scientific and industrial
progress; and finally, in the great American art--that of business
administration--he has proved himself a master.

Ralph Kay Forsyth was born in Brooklyn, New York, April 9, 1878, the
son of John and Mary Kay. His father, a native of Brooklyn, was a
mechanical engineer. Both of his parents dying when he was very young,
at the age of four, Ralph Kay entered the home of Severyn B. Forsyth of
Kingston, New York. The Forsyth family has long been one of the most
prominent in the State. From the time when John Forsyth, the founder,
settled in Newburgh, New York, to the present day, the Forsyths have
been known as examples of far-sighted, idealistic and intelligent
citizenship. Many of the family have been prominent member of the bar,
and an even more universal characteristic has been a generous
humanitarianism, which has expressed itself in numerous and lasting
contributions to the community.

The tender care and loving guidance which he received in the Forsyth
home played no small part in the shaping of Mr. Forsyth's career. He
adopted the name of his foster-parents and has with filial devotion
fulfilled their wishes and carried on their tradition of clean and
high-minded living. His education, \including post-graduate and
technical courses, was received in the public and private schools of
Kingston and in three of the leading universities of the East: Cornell,
Princeton, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a
member of the class of 18903 at Princeton and 1905 at Cornell. He also
received valuable practical training in the Cramp Ship Yards at
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the Newport news Dry Dock Company of
Newport News, Virginia. Two years in Europe completed an unusually full
and well-rounded preparation for life, after which he returned to
Kingston to take over the management of the Cherry Hill Farm.

This farm of two hundred and twenty-five acres was owned by the
Forsyth family, and had been in their possession for one hundred and
fifty years. In connection with it Mr. Forsyth managed the Joy Farm,
near Kingston.

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and another farm of his own comprising one hundred and forty-two
acres. The operation of these extensive agricultural interests in the
most modern and profitable manner occupied his time for some years. Then
he began to perceive the opportunities which lay ready to his hand in
the real estate field. The city of Kingston was advancing in prosperity
and population, and Mr. Forsyth conceived the idea of subdividing a part
of the Joy Farm into house lots and developing it as an attractive
suburb. This plan was carried out in 1910, with results which showed how
sound had been Mr. Forsyth's judgment and foresight. Since that time he
has engineered many projects of suburban development, always with the
idea not merely of selling lots, but of building up comfortable and
attractive modern communities. Mr. Forsyth set aside seventeen acres
known as the "Joy Wood," which he conveyed to the city of
Kingston as a memorial to the Forsyth family.

Although for nearly twenty years Mr. Forsyth has conducted a thriving
real estate business, his interests are by no means confined to a single
field. On the contrary, he is a man of unusually wide knowledge, and no
one of his varied talents has been allowed to interfere with the
development of the others. A pronounced mechanical bent, inherited no
doubt from his own father, showed itself in early boyhood. Most boys
like to tinker with machines, but few of them have the skill and
patience actually to evolve out of nothing an original, practical
device. Mr. Forsyth's fist successful invention was made at the age of
fourteen. It was an instrument designed to save labor in pumping up
bicycle tires, the pump being operated by rotation of the wheel. When in
high school he young inventor became interested in aeronautics, an
interest which he has never abandoned. At this early age he designed a
dirigible built on the principle of a catamaran, and consisting of two
elliptically shaped balloons with complimentary operating devices. A
design of this machine is preserved in the archive of the Aeronautical
Society of Chicago, of which Mr. Forsyth was a member. In 1893 he
designed the first car coupling for railroad cars, an invention the
importance of which to modern transportation can hardly be
over-estimated. This design was later patented, and forms the basis of
all the modern couplings.

Supplemented by the best technical training that the country affords,
Mr. Forsyth's mechanical ability developed apace, and his entry into the
business world did not dull his interest in machines or check his flow
of ideas. Lack of time has no doubt prevented him from working out some
of his conceptions, but even amid the complex demands of business he had
found leisure to revert now and again to his hobby, and to develop and
patent several contrivances of characteristic ingenuity. He is the
inventor of the Steam Turn Table, another invaluable contribution to
railroad operations. His latest development is the portable clothes
closet, rendered moth proof by means of frigid air, an article whose
convenience in both large and small households is readily apparent.

Mr. Forsyth is fortunate in the possession of a fine baritone voice,
whose natural range and richness of tone quality has been improved by
years of cultivation under the best masters. He was accepted as a pupil
by Zosati of New York and also by Rosenoff of the Metropolitan Opera
Company, who paid high compliments to the quality of Mr. Forsyth's
voice. Although he might have succeeded on the opera or concert stage, Mr.. Forsyth has preferred to keep his music as an individual matter, the
relaxation and inspiration of his leisure hours, and a source of
pleasure to his many friends.

Mr. Forsyth has always been a man of great energy, a sportsman in the
best sense, taking a keen delight in physical activity, and particularly
enjoying the sports which develop a spirit of magnanimity and fair play.
Throughout his school days he was a football enthusiast. He was both
captain and manager of the Kingston Academy football team; played on the
scrub team at Princeton; and was captain of the scrub team at Cornell.
In later years his favorite sport has been tennis, at which he is
powerful and accurate player.

Mr. Forsyth is a Republican in his political faith and a member of
the First Reformed Dutch Church. He was a charter member of the
Princeton Engineering Association. As a member of the Farm Bureau he is
prominent in the affairs of Kingston, and many of his suggestions for
civic improvement have been adopted by the community. His interest in
scientific and cultural movements has led to his membership in the
Museum of Natural History of New York City and in the National
Geographic Society. Mr. Forsyth has taken special pride in perpetuating
the memory of the distinguished family of which, by every tie of
youthful attachment and lifelong identity, he is counted an honored
member. In addition to the preservation of "Joy Wood" as a
memorial to the family, Mr. Forsyth has made in his will

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Provision for an Historical Room in the Kingston Senate House,
dedicated to the memory of the Forsyth Family. This famous and historic
building, built in 1676, which was the first home of the New York State
Legislature, is a fitting home for a memorial to the family which has
been so long and so prominently identified with the history of the
Empire State.

MARY ISABELLA FORSYTH

Today, when charitable institutions abound in every town, when the
science of social service holds a leading place in every college
curriculum, when thousand of trained workers and millions in money are
dedicated yearly to the suffering and destitute, we are apt to forget
that all this was made possible by the generous vision and untiring
energy of a few pioneers. Such a one was Mary Isabella Forsyth of
Kingston, New York, founder of the Industrial Home at Kingston, a women
whose life, dedicated to the service of her fellow-beings, was an
inspiring example of devotion to the Christian ideal.

Mary Isabella Forsyth was born January 3, 1840. She was the daughter
of the Hon. James Christie Forsyth, a prominent lawyer and judge of
Ulster County, and his wife, Mary (Bruyn) Forsyth, daughter of Severyn
Bruyn. Miss Forsyth was the sister of Jennie Forsyth, John and Severyn
B. Forsyth. All were active in philanthropic work for town, county and
State. On both paternal and maternal sides she was descended from
distinguished families, and she took pride in an ancestry which included
Colonial pioneers, Revolutionary heroes, and leaders of public affairs.
Her great-grandfather, Lieutenant-Colonel Jacobus Severyn Bruyn, was a
member of the Society of the Cincinnati organization composed of
officers of the American Army of the Revolutionary War. Miss Forsyth was
responsible for the organization, in 1893, of the Willtwyck Chapter,
Daughters of the American Revolution, of which she was the first regent.
One might say as a matter of course, she became regent for the State of
New York and later on, one of the vice-presidents-general of the
National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. She was also a
member of the Society of Colonial Dames. She was well known in all
philanthropic and religious work, being a devout supporter of the First
Reformed Church of Kingston and a tireless worker for social betterment.

While still a young woman Miss Forsyth was aroused by the need for
some kind of institution to care for poor and friendless children. She
immediately set about interesting others and raising funds for such an
institution. When enough yearly subscriptions had been secured to place
the venture on a sound financial basis, a house was taken and an appeal
made to the entire community for assistance in fitting it out. The
response was an overwhelming testimony to the public's faith in the
success of Miss Forsyth's enterprise, and to the extent to which she had
inspired the town with her own spirit of generosity. The first response
came from a colored man and his wife, who offered their services for
cleaning. Other contributions of labor, furniture, etc., came from high
and low, and at the close of December in the year 1876, the sixteen
children who had been waiting in the public almshouse found a new and
far more homelike refuge in the new institution.

The place was given the name of "The Industrial Home," in
reference to the fact that one of its chief aims was to cultivate habits
of industry in the children under its care, and to give them such
training as would enable them to lead happy and useful lives. Even more,
however, was the Industrial Home interested in securing for its children
good homes in private families, and many of its wards have been adopted
by foster-parents. The original purpose was to provide for aged persons
also, but the work with children has proved to be the principal
activity, and has grown and widely extended its sphere of usefulness.
Children from all walks of life have found good homes or, in exceptional
cases, have been given the proper treatment to fit their needs. No
distinction of creed, color or nationality has ever been made, though
the Christian religion has at all times dominated the life of the Home.

Miss Forsyth continued to head the supervisory board and to be the
leading figure in the affairs of the home until her death in 1914. An
account written by her gives in graphic and touching style some details
which bring out as no general statements can the real significance of
the home's work. A few paragraphs from this are quoted:

A brother and sister were abandoned in midwinter by their mother,
while their father was in the penitentiary--the mother, having left them
to live with another man. The children were found by the poormaster,
half starved and nearly frozen. After being about a year in the Home
they went out for adoption in families, living ten or fifteen miles
apart. The brother and sister exchange visits--the families having
become friends--and are growing up intelligent, well educated and well
principled. The managers

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of the Home had to undergo two lawsuits brought for the recovery of
the children by the parents and their companions in vice. But the Court
decided that the children must remain under the guardianship of the
Home.

In a wretched tenement ina forlorn, outlying district beyond the city
limits, a mother died leaving five children, the youngest an infant
about a week old. The father was a drunkard. The family had been chiefly
supported by the mother's efforts. To protect the little ones from worse
than want they were brought to the Home, and soon--very soon--all found
excellent homes. Two of them in our own city--a bright little lad who is
the delight of a young carpenter and his wife; and the oldest, a young
girl of modesty and refinement, who is an active worker in the church,
Sunday school and Christian Endeavor Society.

It must not be supposed that all Home inmates are of degraded or even
ignorant parentage. Death, illness, sudden misfortune have sent children
to this temporary shelter whoa re of thoroughly respectable
surroundings. One such was left in our care when three months old. The
father was a German organist and music teacher who had lost his sight.
Through influence secured by one of the managers of the Home he was
admitted to the Blind Asylum, where he died. The mother with her own
children returned to her parents. The care of the infant was a serious
burden at the Home in those early, struggling days. At three years of
age, the little one went from us to a childless family ina neighboring
state. Within a year from the time of her arrival, a child--long
despaired of--was born to the young couple, who have continued to
cherish the adopted daughter as tenderly as their own children, now
three in number. The family is one in affection and interest. The
adopted child, now entering womanhood, is beloved by all who know her.

Altogether, the experience of all these years leads us to believe
that small temporary Homes of this kind solve many problems and should
be established in every county. They should not be permanent homes for
the young, except where some unusual infirmity of body or mind makes
them require care that can be given only there, but should serve as
stepping-stones for wider and more natural conditions, such as are
supplied by family life of the best kind. This is the theory upon which
the Industrial Home was organized and had been carried on……..

Words fail to express the gladness that fills the heart of the
visitor who finds a child--once rescued from poverty or evil
conditions--thoroughly rooted and thriving ina happy new home. It
recalls the words "I have no greater joy than to hear that my
children walk in truth."

In literature Miss Forsyth showed marked ability in prose and verse.
Much of her work was published in the leading magazines. The visitor to
Kingston find the desire for a short local history supplied in her
"The Beginnings of New York, Kingston the First State
Capitol." Her verse is pleasing and instructive; several follow:

They are coming! They are coming!
Put your car upon the ground.
You can feel a far vibration,
Hear a strangely solemn sound.
Lo! The steps of homeless children,
Who in helpless suffering seek
The pity and protection
That the strong should give the weak.
From the homes of honest labor,
Where the head was stricken down,
From the haunts of degradation,
In the slums of every town.
From the highways and the byways
Of remoter hill and plain
They are coming, surely coming--
Shall we let them come in vain?

O, the lives that go to ruin--
That before my eyes are wrecked
In the tides of deep corruption
We allow to roll unchecked.
"Lend a Hand" to save the children,
Standing shivering on the brink!
You may free the prisoned angel
Far, far oftener than you think!
Let us share with them our treasure,
Be it time, or wealth, or home,
In a love that knows no measure
"Let the little children come."
"In His name," who gently gathered
Such of old upon his knee,
Saying "Whosoe'er receiveth
One such child receiveth me."

THE WHITE BIRCH.

Along the wandering river
Amidst the greenwood trees
The silver birches quiver
With every passing breeze
Like a wistful mourning maiden
They lean above the stream
With snow-white arms out-reaching
To grasp - a vanished dream.

At nightfall in the forest
The traveler with a start
Beholds it wave and beckon
While wildly beats his heart
For all the older stores
Of drayad, phantom, fay
Come thronging into memory
When the white birch bars his way.

A faint perpetual murmur
It's sole pathetic speech,
Does it sign o'er mortal sorrows
No mortal help can reach?
Does some lonely spirit, shiver
With a chill no warmth can stay
When besides the wandering river
The silver birches sway?

LINCOLN

A young backwoodsman, tall and strong of limb
We find him in the wilds of Illinois;
So brave, so patient, oft men said of him
"A man, while yet a boy."

A man indeed, while climbing upward still,
They gazed at his advance with wondering eyes,
And saw his lofty aims, his steadfast will,
With glad surprise.

He reached the summit ina crucial hour,
When clouds and darkness hung above the land,
And proved himself to all a man of power
Who could command.

He loved his country--not some special part
More dear than others--but the glorious whole,
He gave--to save the Union--all his heart
His brain, his soul.
In one brief respite from the awful strain,
The foul assassin's bullet--then the end.

And all the wide world mourned and mourned in vain
The nation's friend.
But was it all in vain when proudly waves
The flag he loved--full starred from shore to shore;
When North and south clasp hands o'er heroes' graves,
Would he ask more?
Would he ask more?

The History of New York State,
Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., 1927